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Jeff Kaliss: Celebrating the Moon at Festival Napa Valley
San Francisco Classical Voice
"The theme continued in the second piece, San Francisco-based composer Gordon Getty's setting of what he's said may be his longest original poem, The Old Man in the Night, whose story, an interchange between two men at the opposite ends of their lives, moves from twilight into nighttime, with allusions to “the Huntress Moon.” It's a score whose musical drama evokes Wagner and demands crisp and clear declaration both instrumental and vocal, the latter challenged by the composer's tendency toward sustained unison tones. In this regard, and without amplification, the women of the Festival Napa Valley Volti Chorale, under chorus master Robert Geary, fared better than the somewhat muted men. Conductor Joel Revzen perfectly paced and balanced the Festival Orchestra Napa through Getty's setting of clarion horns and moody strings against the singers' gravitas."